1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to garden tools, and especially to a ground hole-creating device used to create openings for plant annuals. The tool can be forced into the ground using both hand and foot pressure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gardeners and those who like to plant annuals have to undergo the task of planting the plugs in the soil each year. The task is usually compounded by the fact that annuals are usually planted in bulk. The task of planting annuals involves preparing the soil and creating holes for each plug. The traditional way of creating an annual bed is by getting down on one's knees with hand tools to form a hole and plant each plug individually. Unfortunately, this process can cause back and knee pain, and also does not provide the planter with a perspective view of the developing bed of annuals. Annual beds are usually planted in staggered rows, thus it is important for the planter to see the bed in perspective during the process of planting the plugs. Consequently a digging or earth moving tool which may be used standing up, which does not require repetitive digging passes to prepare a single planting hole, and which is particularly dimensioned for forming a planting hole particularly adapted for planting annual plugs is desired.
Gardening is such a popular pastime that a plethora of devices have been devised, both for general gardening tasks and for particular purposes.
A number of devices have been designed in which the digging or earth-moving component comprises a thin plate or blade. The plate may be flat and planar, or arcuately curved. Various ornamental designs for hoes are shown in U.S. Design Patent Nos. 35,242, issued Oct. 29, 1901 to Solomon; 60,259, issued Jan. 17, 1922 to Plantinga; 344,221, issued Feb. 15, 1994 to Allbright; 379,141, issued May 13, 1997 to Cleghorn; 383,951, issued Sep. 23, 1997 to Dutchak; and 431,980, issued Oct. 17, 2000 to Yarbrough.
Various forms of spades or shovels are shown or described in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 332,555, issued Jan. 19, 1993 to Hagerman; U.S. Design Patent No. 339,038, issued Sep. 7, 1993 to Pohlmann; U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,149, issued Dec. 28, 1965 to McJohnson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,141, issued Jan. 27, 1981 to Grint; U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,649, issued Sep. 23, 1997 to Metcalf; U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,920, issued Mar. 30, 1999 to Perciful; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,077 to Dahill.
Other gardening devices having a single, flat plate digging element are disclosed in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 56,054, issued Aug. 10, 1920 to Dlacich (a pick); U.S. Des. Pat. No. 247,091, issued Jan. 31, 1978 to Sandorf (hand tool); U.S. Des. Pat. No. 262,596, issued Jan. 12, 1982 to Green (a wheeled garden tool); U.S. Des. Pat. No. 349,223, issued Aug. 2, 1994 to Nyffeler (a garden tool); U.S. Pat. No. 2,228,275, issued Jan. 14, 1941 to Lawrence (cutters and trowels); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,980, issued Nov. 7, 1978 to Winston (root feeder with shovel-like digging element).
Still other devices have a digging or earth moving element with a special shape for specialized tasks. Tools having a conically shaped element are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,207,741, issued Jul. 6, 1940 to Kimble; U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,400, issued Jul. 20, 1993, issued to Luke; and W.I.P.O. Patent No. WO 02/051239, published Jul. 4, 2002. Tools having a cylindrical digging element are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,739, issued Oct. 1, 1974 to Pollard (tube with pointed end); U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,027, issued Jan. 14, 1992 to Brothers (pole with pointed end for seed planting); and U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,294, issued May 14, 2002 to Best; and Japanese Patent No. 10-234,205 published Sep. 8, 1998 (shovel and fork hinged together to form cylinder). Devices with a rectangular box shape are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,070, issued Feb. 20, 1996 to Lefkow; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,651, issued Apr. 11, 2000 to Wilson (inverted frusto-pyramidal).
In addition, U.S. Des. Pat. No. 297,605, issued Sep. 13, 1988 to Weitekamp shows a garden tool with three plates defining an inverted U-shape, open on one side, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,930, issued May 3, 1992 to Napier shows an earth splitter having a wedge-shaped blade with two rectangular faces, the edges being generally triangular faces.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a planting tool solving the aforementioned problems is desired.